Savage Hunger

Chapter 22

Maya had taken a nice long nap in her comfortable air-conditioned cabana. She thought she had heard Kat and Connor making love, if the muted love cries were from them and not from howler monkeys or something else that was imitating them. She smiled, satisfied that she had brought Kat and her brother together and that her plan had worked. She’d had some iffy moments over the past few days.

Now if they could only get Kat home to Texas without further incident. Early evening was upon them, the blue sky and wispy clouds turning violet as the warm yellow sun sank beneath the brilliant foliage, and Maya was starving.

She didn’t want to disturb Kat and Connor, but she wasn’t waiting.

She dressed in jeans and a flowery shirt and strappy sandals. Feeling more human, she left her cabana and headed down the quaint stone path that wound among more cabanas hidden away in the dense jungle foliage. When she reached the white building with blue awnings stretched over its long narrow windows, a toucan was sitting in a cocoa tree near the entrance and Spanish music drifted from the building.

Her mouth watered at the aroma of cheeses and fish and chicken and beef cooking in the kitchen.

When she stepped inside the large tiled room, which was bustling with tourists and what looked to be regulars, a hostess seated her at one of the empty square tables for four. The air-conditioned air felt good, but circulating fans whirling high above helped to move it even more. She felt like she was in a breezy, chillier place than South America.

The sound of laughter and splashing came from outside where the pool was located, though she couldn’t see it as she took her seat. She smiled up at the dark-haired miss who handed her a menu, but the owner of the establishment, Garcia, caught her attention. His face was dark and grim as he listened to a man speaking to him, the stranger gesticulating at the resort. Garcia’s forehead was sweating, his hands clenching and unclenching into fists at his sides, and she caught a whiff of the smell of sweat on him as the fans carried it to her.

Three other men were crowded around Garcia—all of Spanish descent, dark haired, and scruffy looking—standing too close, in his space, and extremely intimidating. The one who was speaking shoved a photo at him. The owner looked at it for a long moment, then shook his head and handed the picture back. Did the interrogator see the fleeting look of recognition on Garcia’s face like Maya did?

That’s when she noticed the man had a gun half-exposed by his camouflage vest. This was bad news.

The waitress returned with Maya’s glass of water.

“Are those men from around here?” Maya asked, knowing she shouldn’t stick her nose in where it didn’t belong, but she was both curious and annoyed that the men were bullying Garcia. He had been so pleasant toward her brother and Kat and her, and so accommodating, making sure they could have their cabanas right away despite their grungy appearances, the odd hour when they had arrived, and their having had no reservations.

She would have loved to have taken the men on in her jaguar form and scared them like they were scaring Garcia.

The waitress glanced back at the men and quickly returned her gaze to Maya, her eyes huge. She vehemently shook her head.

Did that mean she knew them and they weren’t from around here? Or that she didn’t know them but just knew their type?

“What are they doing here?” Maya asked.

The woman shook her head again, too afraid to speak and draw the men’s attention.

Maya wanted desperately to take them to task, but she knew it was best to cool her heels. No sense in making waves that could involve Kat, who didn’t have her shape-shifting abilities in hand.

“Are you certain Kathleen McKnight is not staying here? An eyewitness said he had seen her come in here to…” the man said to Garcia, his voice dark and threatening, prompting Garcia to finish the statement.

Maya’s blood chilled to ice.

There were only two things Kat might have done when she arrived here—eaten at the restaurant or taken a room.

Maya glanced back at the owner, fearing he would tell the men where Kathleen was staying, but he just shook his head, saying no.

Oh, God. He was helping them, but it could get him killed, she feared.

She had to warn Connor and Kat.

Her heart thundering, Maya said to the waitress, “I’m afraid I’m not feeling well all of a sudden. Can you cancel the order?”

The waitress looked bewildered.

Maya repeated her words in Spanish, but the woman still seemed surprised. Maya rose from her chair, trying not to catch the men’s attention. “I’ll be back later, if I can.”

She handed a tip to the woman, then with a forced easy stride, she left the restaurant, raced up the path to Connor and Kat’s cabana, and barged in without knocking first.

Connor and Kat were dressed at least, both their mouths gaping as they turned to stare at her in disbelief.

“Someone’s asking about Kat. Men like the ones we saw in the jungle. The owner is buying us some time, but they’re at the restaurant now, and he told them he’d never seen the woman in the photo they had of her.”

“We have a flight out of here at 5 p.m. tomorrow,” Connor said, quickly stuffing his things in his bag, while Kat put her clothes in her own bag.

“What if we drive to Bogotá tonight and take a flight to Houston from there instead of waiting for the flight tomorrow night to fly us to Bogotá? Then there would be no stops. Just a straight flight into Houston,” Maya said.

Connor zipped up his bag. “It’s the red-eye flight. It’ll leave tomorrow at midnight and arrive at 5:30 the next morning. But it’s a long drive to Bogotá and can be dangerous.”

Maya nodded but only commented on the flight. “Hopefully everyone will be sleeping on the plane during the middle of the night and the lights all out, just in case Kat shifts. Did you get the very back seats?”

“Yes,” Connor said.

“Maybe we should make a stand,” Kat said, her voice quiet as she stared out the window, her back rigid. “Maybe we shouldn’t be running away.”

Maya was shocked that Kat would even say such a thing, and she wondered if it was due to Kat’s military training or her jaguar senses or a little of both.

Kat continued, “I’ve endangered you both.”

“What are we going to do, Connor?” Maya asked, rubbing Kat’s arm in reassurance.

“I’ll go down and take a look at the men while you pack. Kat will go with you. We’ll leave our packs at your cabana in case Garcia changes his mind and tells the men we’re staying there.”

“I’ll go with you,” Maya said, “in case the men aren’t speaking to Garcia any further and you won’t know which men they are.”

Kat turned to face them, her expression all business. “I’ll go with you and see if I can identify them.”

“No,” both Maya and Connor said, causing Kat to raise her brows. But then they heard footfalls on the path below the cabana moving toward one of the lower cabanas, and Maya, Kat, and Connor all headed for the window to peer out through the sheer curtains.

But they couldn’t see who was walking up the path. The thick vegetation hid each of the cabanas from the view of the others, giving welcome privacy for the guests.

“Shit,” Connor whispered, grabbing his and Kat’s packs. “Let’s go.” He motioned to a window that faced the park and boulders behind the cabana. “We’ll climb through the window.”

Kat already had slid the window up as quietly as she could, but Maya felt the slight grinding sound had alerted everyone in a one-hundred-mile radius of their plans. The problem with their sensitive hearing was they often felt as though everyone else had it also.

Kat climbed out the window and then took her bag from Connor, and then his. Maya joined her outside, and Connor climbed out last, shutting the window as quietly as he could. They moved quickly through the vegetation, avoiding the stone path while making their way to Maya’s cabana. When they reached it, Maya went to the front door and unlocked it. Kat and Connor stayed hidden in the tropical vegetation behind her place.

Maya went inside, shut the door, and then hurried to the back side of her cabana and opened the window for them. They slipped their bags to her, and Connor boosted Kat through the window, then climbed into the cabana after her.

Maya was already cramming her clothes and other personal effects into her backpack.

Connor glanced out a front window and saw three men on the path headed for a different cabana. Kat drew close and watched them, her eyes widening with recognition.

This is so not good, Maya thought. “Kat,” she whispered, though the men wouldn’t hear her in the enclosed cabana. “Do you know them?”

“Some of Gonzales’s men,” Kat said. “One of the ones who shot me.” She switched her attention from the men to Connor. “How could they know I was here?”

“What about this Wade Patterson you were supposed to meet here?” Connor asked, as they grabbed their bags and he guided Maya and Kat out of the cabana through the back window.

“I don’t know,” Kat admitted, sounding anxious as she jumped to the ground.

“We’ll talk about it later. For now, we need to get a rental vehicle. We’re paid up at this resort. And we’ll do what Maya suggested. We’ll drive to Bogotá. We can take the red-eye flight to Houston from there tomorrow night since it might be safer in the event you have the urge to change. Or we might be able to catch an earlier flight.”

“Do you think Garcia told on us?” Maya asked.

“No. If he did, they wouldn’t have been searching all the cabanas. Maybe they assumed he hadn’t seen you, that we slipped Kat into a room. I believe someone must have seen Kat at some point and reported she was here.”

“Do you think that they’ve been following us all along?” Kat asked. “On our long hike through the jungle?”

“I don’t know. Not for sure. If so, they probably couldn’t make contact any more than we could, with no satellite towers to make cell phone calls.” Connor said.

“They’d wonder about us, don’t you think?” Maya asked her brother.

“We rescued her in the jungle. They probably figure we’re just getting her to a city for her own safety.” He glanced at Kat, who looked like she was going to be sick, her face ice white. “Kat? Are you going to be all right?”